Leading Turkish Newspaper Converts to Digital with Violet Solutions and XM Screening

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Press release from the issuing company

Mortsel, Belgium September 27, 2006 -- Agfa Graphics announced today that Sabah Newspaper, one of Turkey's largest newspapers and part of the Ciner Group, has selected Agfa's violet-laser CtP (computer-to-plate) systems to convert to full digital platemaking. Sabah currently uses analogue equipment from other manufacturers. The deal is another major win for Agfa's Turkish distributor Reproset after the Dogan/Hurriyet announcement in June this year.
Three high-speed :Polaris XTV units with :Arkitex software and :Sublima screening will make Sabah a leader in technological innovation and newspaper printing quality in Turkey. Dozens of newspapers around the world have enhanced print and colour quality for better looking advertising pages thanks to Agfa's cross-modulation screening, which requires no extra effort on press. Sabah will be the first newspaper to bring this ground-breaking technology to the Turkish market.
The new systems are to be installed at Sabah's Istanbul print site, which will use approximately 200,000 sq. m. of violet plates per year. Sabah has four more print sites at Ankara, Izmir, Antalya and Adana. "As we were scouting our technology options, we wanted to find the best and most innovative solutions. Our long-standing partners Reproset guided our choice to Agfa," said Selim Gulmen, Sabah's production manager. "Agfa's market and technology leadership together with Reproset's trusted reputation of customer support outweighed competitive offers, even at a lower price. We saw an impressive demonstration of Agfa's chemistry-free violet plate. No other manufacturer's technology vision even comes close."
"This is yet another major win for us in Turkey this year and we are very pleased to see Turkish newspapers embrace the violet CtP solutions which have made us a global leader for digital newspaper prepress," said Emma Isichei, director of Agfa Graphics' newspaper segment.